17.  This only caused a growl of determination, and no one blenched or seemed disposed to shrink from the foremost exposure.  They knew that their number would enable them to bear down and destroy the handful of marines after the first discharge, and before their pieces could be reloaded.  Again they were ordered to retire; but they answered with more ferocity than ever.  The marines were ordered to take their aim so as to be sure and kill as many as possible.  Their guns were presented, but not a prisoner stirred, except to grasp more firmly his weapon.

18.  Still desirous to avoid such a tremendous slaughter as must have followed the discharge of a single gun, Major Wainright advanced a step or two, and spoke even more firmly than before, urging them to depart.  Again, and while looking directly into the muzzles of the guns which they had seen loaded with ball, they declared their intention “to fight it out.”  This intrepid officer then took out his watch, and told his men to hold their pieces aimed at the convicts, but not to fire till they had orders; then, turning to the prisoners, he said:  “You must leave this hall; I give you three minutes to decide; if at the end of that time a man remains, he shall be shot dead.”

19.  No situation of greater interest than this can be conceived.  At one end of the hall, a fearful multitude of the most desperate and powerful men in existence, waiting for the assault; at the other, a little band of disciplined men, waiting with arms presented, and ready, upon the least motion or sign, to begin the carnage; and their tall and imposing commander, holding up his watch to count the lapse of three minutes, given as the reprieve to the lives of hundreds.  No poet or painter can conceive a spectacle of more dark and terrible sublimity; no human heart can conceive a situation of more appalling suspense.

20.  For two minutes not a person nor a muscle moved; not a sound was heard in the unwonted stillness of the prison, except the labored breathings of the infuriated wretches, as they began to pant between fear and revenge:  at the expiration of two minutes, during which they had faced the ministers of death with unblenching eyes, two or three of those in the rear, and nearest the further entrance, went slowly out; a few more followed the example, dropping out quietly and deliberately:  and before half of the last minute was gone, every man was struck by the panic, and crowded for an exit, and the hall was cleared, as if by magic.

21.  Thus the steady firmness of moral force and the strong effect of determination, acting deliberately, awed the most savage men, and suppressed a scene of carnage, which would have instantly followed the least precipitancy or exertion of physical force. 
                                                     —­J.  T. Buckingham.

“It may be that more lofty courage dwells
In one weak heart which braves all adverse fate
Than does in his whose soul indignant swells,
Warmed by the fight, or cheered through high debate.”